Development of Nutri bar from Millets for Malnourished

Introduction

Food bars are considered as snack food with good sensory and nutritional characteristics due to their high content of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals and their product play an important role in the human diet with a specific function and physiological benefits to the human being and are considered as the economically competitive source of nutrients .The millet now referred as Nutri-cereal instead of coarse grain contains higher proportion of complex carbohydrates, resistant starch and slow rising sugar. Millet grain is highly nutritious with good quality protein, vitamins, dietary fibre, phyto-chemicals and rich in minerals. They also help in rendering health benefits like reduction in blood sugar level (diabetes), blood pressure regulation, thyroid, cardiovascular and celiac diseases. However, the direct consumption of millets as food has significantly declined over the past three decades. The major reasons of decrease in consumption is the lack of awareness of nutritional merits, inconveniences in food preparation, lack of processing technologies Focus should be given on improving processing techniques to generate an easily consumable form of millets.

Ingredients

Processing steps for production of millet bar

Pre processing

The raw ingredients were cleaned separately to remove the external dust and dirt particles. The millets were roasted and popped in a pan separately to get aroma.

Preparation of syrup and millet bar

The measured quantity of foxtail millet and Job’s tears were roasted in a pan for 15 minutes and partially grinded. Jaggery syrup was prepared by addition of 60 ml of water to 40g of the powdered palm Jaggery and boiled to a temperature of 122 ͦ C till soft ball stage. Partially roasted groundnuts along with the other ingredients were added into the vessel mixed well with Jaggery syrup. A 2 tablespoon of honey was also added. The mixture was then transferred to a mildly greased rectangular tray, firm pressed with a wooden roller, allowed to cool and cut into a required size.

Nutritional value of Job’s tears, Foxtail millet, groundnut per 100 gms

• Incorporation of millets in the diet in the form of processed bar can improve the nutritional status.
• Value added products from millet have the potential to add value to business and has a large potential for growth as consumers believe that millets and millet based foods contribute directly to their health.
• Nutri bars can be processed using different ingredients with different nutritional benefits targeting different age group and genders. Iron fortified nutri bars to reduce anemia in women. Nutri bar processed from millets and different nutritious food for malnourished.

Conclusion

Value addition technology is a blessing to increase shelf life of the products and gives nutritious, sweetened, tasty and flavored. Processing of millet into numerous products can doubled the income. Millets bar are nutritious and energy yielding product. The millet based composite bar along with other nutritious ingredients is an acceptable product, easy to digest, contained high amount of energy and convenient snack for all age groups.

Article contributed by Thungchano S Ezung, H Moaakum, ICAR KVK Wokha, Nagaland; Mesüte-ü Lomi, Shanchobeni Ovung (CoA, Kyrdemkulai, Meghalaya); Thungjanbemo R Tsopoe (CHF, Pasighat, Ar P)